1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to processing for limiting installation and execution of an application on a device.
2. Description of the Related Art
For applications operating particularly on a Web browser of a PC (Personal Computer), there are applications comprising HTML (HyperText Markup Language) files and JavaScript (registered trademark) files. These applications are sometimes called Widgets or Web applications. Such applications may include CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) files, image files, XML files, or the like.
Nowadays, these applications configured with HTML files and JavaScript files are used not only by PCs, but also by various devices. The WAC (Wholesale Applications Community) is developing, as a standard specification, a framework for distributing applications to devices through an application store on a network.
The WAC has a system called security policy for limiting the processing, such as installation or execution of applications on a device. For instance, in a case where an application uses a device-unique function, a declaration to use the function is embedded in the application. Whether the target function is available is described in the security policy of the device. When the application is started, the device refers to the security policy, and only when the security policy conforms to the declaration of use in the application, the device executes the application. For an application management method using security policy, there is a conventional technique utilizing a dedicated application and a dedicated server (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-79901).
Meanwhile, efforts to utilize user's position information in an application that is operating on a device are advancing. For instance, there is an approach to switch applications provided to a user in accordance with user's position information. A method has been proposed (Japanese Patent Laid-Open. No. 2011-170864) for dynamically switching the contents provided to a user in accordance with device's geographic information.
In the conventional technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-170864, geographic information is embedded in advertisement distributed by a server, and only the advertisement that conforms to the geographic information of the client apparatus is displayed on the apparatus.
According to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-170864, because advertisement is automatically switched in accordance with geographic information of the client apparatus, if the technique is applied to application control in the form that complies with the WAC specification, user's intention cannot be reflected. For instance, assume a case where a user in Japan wants to execute an application that is distributed overseas. In this case, because the client apparatus exists in Japan, the user cannot execute the application distributed overseas. Also, it is impossible to limit installation or execution of the application in accordance with movement of the user.
The present invention provides an information processing technique that reflects user's preference or user's movement, when the information processing apparatus limits installation or execution of an application based on geographic information.